Meat Company to Label its Pink Slime Ground Beef

Cargill Inc. will use package labeling to alert the public that its ground beef contains pink slime finely textured beef.

Major meat manufacturer Cargill Inc. will soon include labeling on its ground beef packaging to indicate that it contains a finely textured beef product—a substance that is comprised of spare parts of the cow and is unofficially dubbed "pink slime." According to Reuters, Cargill says that this move toward greater consumer transparency came after the corporation surveyed 3,000 participants throughout the last 18 months on how ground beef is produced. But the manufacturer’s choice to label their beef may be influenced by the media frenzy last year centered around its competitor Beef Products Inc., which experienced a dramatic decline in sales after ABC News informed the public that the company’s ground beef contained a similar finely textured beef product treated with ammonium hydroxide. Cargill's new labeling will also state that the beef is sprayed with citric acid.